Curious anecdotes and musings on what makes us 'us'

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Posted in August 2013 …

Another item from the farthest regions of reality: actor George Clooney, at the Venice Film festival to promote his new film ‘Gravity’, has been talking about his satellite. Hollywood actors are famous for their lavish spending, but this is a first – he owns a spy satellite in orbit over Sudan to keep an eye … Continue reading →

Here’s a movement from the outer reaches of sensibility, so gloriously mad it works. The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster was founded as a protest against Intelligent Design being taught in Kansas schools, and has spread to become a worldwide phenomena. They now have something like a million followers, with some actually believing in … Continue reading →

Elton John is a musician I tend to forget about because he has simply been around for so long, and for all the Disney stuff, but he has always been a formidable singer/songwriter from the earliest days of this profession. This is a clip of him singing one of his best songs, Your Song, through … Continue reading →

This is another slice of the wonderful book The Gardener’s Year, by Karel Capek, illustrated by his brother Josef: Odd as it may appear, a gardener does not grow from seed, shoot, bulb, rhizone, or cutting, but from experience, surroundings, and natural conditions. when I was a little boy I had towards my father’s garden … Continue reading →

This is a book by Czech writer Karel Capeck who gave the wrd robot to the English language. It is a brilliant little tome that was hugely popular on its release in 1931; the copy I have is the 10th impression, from 1939. It is both funny and an accurate (?) account of gardening, beautifully … Continue reading →